Thanks to flatlander for keeping me up to date on what’s going on in Utah. Sen. Chris Buttars’ anti-evolution bill is still being debated and some changes are being considered. The Deseret News reports:

SB96’s House sponsor, Rep. Jim Ferrin, R-Orem, wants to substitute the bill a third time, taking out all references to the “origins of life” but still aiming to keep teachers from telling students they evolved from apes.

But that can happen only if the House Rules Committee agrees to put the bill up for its final legislative debate.

The changes didn’t win over school officials who oppose the bill, primarily because it treads on the state school board’s authority to set curriculum.

The article also reports the results of a recent poll in Utah that found that 55% of that state’s residents support the bill that would require schools to teach that “evolution is not indisputably proven and there could be other reasons for human development.” 40% opposed the bill. I’m frankly shocked that the numbers are that good.

I think that the US education system should follow what other countries do. Appoint an organization of scholart, a la National Academies, made of experts in all fields, with educators and teacher. This organization develop standars to be met and provides guidance on how to meet them.

The numbers don’t surprise me. To say that human beings and other apes had a common ancestor is to deny Mormon and Christian fundamentalist beliefs. Most of these people have probably only been exposed to a couple of weeks worth of evolution education (if that much) whereas many of them will have been hearing from the pulpit week in and week out for years the religious dogma of how human beings are “special” and fundamentally different from the rest of the animal kingdom.